The Hour of Dust and Ashes (Charlie Madigan 3) by Kelly Gay

Hello everybody!

                      So September has started and this week was extremely hot , it was great to have a little more sun yes but 25°C would have been enough and we were a lot about that i had to adjust but happiness was high and general. Now the temperatures have dropped, rain is back and it does affect the mood more than necessary..because yes in my country is generally all or nothing... but back to reading topic.

While checking my TBR pile trying to decide what to read for this month, with the topic of dragon, i discovered that i forgot the 3rd book of the Charlie Madigan  i had prepared for the siren theme last month. I felt so stupid until i remembered that there is a dragon too in this^^ even a druid dragon king to be precise so "contre fortune bon coeur" i've read it for this month and i was happy with this decision because i enjoyed it!

I won't read only dragon books of course, after all there are other challenges i must complete but better start somewhere^^ so here is my opinion on The Hour of Dust and Ashes by Kelly Gay

happy reading!

Publisher: Pocket

Publication: 2011

ISBN:  1451625472

Genre: urban fantasy, paranormal
Violence: strong
Language: normal
sex: none
Public: 18+

Source: bought
 

Short description from goodreads :

 To save her sister, she must stop a silent killer. . . .

Protecting Atlanta from the off-world criminals of Underground is tough enough, but now Detective Charlie Madigan and her siren partner, Hank, learn that the addicts of the offworld drug ash have begun taking their own lives. Ash makes humans the perfect vessels for possession, and something or someone is leading them to their deaths. Charlie is desperate to save her addicted sister, Bryn, from a similar fate. As New Year’s Eve approaches and time runs out, Charlie makes a deadly bargain with an ancient race of beings and embarks on a dangerous journey into hellish Charbydon with Hank and the Revenant Rex to save Bryn and make it back before it’s too late. Only, for one of them, coming home means facing a fate worse then death. . . .

My opinion:

          I was surprised to be so happy to find myself this universe once again and in a matter of minutes I was immersed in the story…now it was only possible since I’ve read book 1 and 2 already (and not that long ago) because even if there are some recaps of what happened it’s really a series you must read in order to really get into it.

Charlie is still experiencing some changes and trying to get used to them when she must cope with the consequences of the events on the Helios Tower. Some enemies doesn’t believe what the officials said and they don’t hesitate to attack Charlie to get information.  Now some attacks she is used to it but the problem are the complications inherent to these new fights…as soon as she use her powers a strange shadowy creature appears and she can’t understand it. Then Bryn her sister and all the other ash victims must be put under surveillance and more because they start to commit suicide without logical reason.

For Charlie it means they must still be possessed but then all the exorcists have fled the city or were killed, without any other solution available she must accept the help of the Sylphs, long thought extinct or a myth. However such a gift doesn’t come without a big price and a limited time.

 Now I must admit that I was really surprised by the different twists in this story so I enjoyed greatly how the author managed to put me on edge. I didn’t know what to expect until the final page and I still have a lot of question that I hope will be answered in book 4.  Here we discover that the sylphs are really strange and powerful, but I was even more surprised by the sirens. I though I liked Hank because he was a siren but in fact…he is more just a siren by look and power than personality.  Really those are so cruel despite they looks it’s frightening… I guess they are not all bad but at least they don’t question their leaders’ acts….never and believe without trying to put thing into perspective…for nearly immortal creatures that sounds quite stupid… I do pity Hank.

Another really fun element in this book is that we finally got to see one of the other world: Charbydon, and it does look strange I would be happy to learn more. We have learned about Elysian more but we still haven’t put a foot on it (though with what we learned it’s getting more and more difficult to see it as a paradise).

The romance between Hank and Charlie is growing to and they finally admit it even if they don’t act on it yet. He trusts her enough to tell her about his past and she accept to appears weak in front of him.. a few kisses are exchanged but that’s all.  Rex is showing more his past talents, gifts and he is teaching Brim,… we see that he was really a great jinn but at the same time he really changed too.

I can’t wait to jump into book 4 but at the same time I’m afraid because I’m not sure when book 5 is scheduled so I will see if I can resist and not read it immediately but it’s only in fear of a cliffhanger in next book..; only for that. It’s really an excellent book if you love urban fantasy series with intrigues and action ^^ to recommend.

Score:  4/5

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own and no compensation was received in exchange for this review

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